Think your latest MacBook Air is still very slow despite being equipped with an SSD? Well fear not, as Other World Computing would be happy to quell your woes with its SandForce-equipped Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G. The company’s latest storage upgrade steps things up from its 3Gb/s versions, promising to get your tasks zooming with consistent speeds of “over 500MB/s”, achieved by utilizing the ’11 Air’s SATA Revision 3.0, 6Gb/s bus, or any laptop as long as you have SATA 3.0 onboard. The 120GB variant will set you back a wallet-thinning $350, while 240GBs will cost you a whopping 600 greens. Well, to be fair no one ever said performance like this comes cheap. They’re available now from OWC.

SOURCE via OWC

Well, since Samsung couldn’t get an early peek at the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, the company has simply decided to take a page from Apple’s playbook. A senior exec told The Korea Times it plans to file a request to block the sale of the upcoming iOS handset in its Korean homeland the moment the device is announced. According to the Times, the anonymous exec said it would leverage its wireless technology patents and demand that Apple either remove the telecommunications features — turning the iPhone into an iPod touch — or simply be banished from the Korean market. The knock-down-drag-out war between the two companies has only seemed to escalate in recent weeks, as Sammy has taken a much more combative and offensive approach. We can only hope the two get tired of divvying up the globe and declare a draw in this game of patent Risk.

SOURCE via The Korea Times

Judging from the covert screenshot you see above, it most certainly seems like a legit shot. A tipster tipped Engadget this very convincing screenshot, from AT&T’s internal system, listing the “iPhone 4s White” beneath a handful of already familiar Apple handsets. Could it be? Is Cupertino actually planning on bringing a white version of its next iPhone out at launch? Only time will tell, which is only about a month’s time anyway.

SOURCE via Engadget

The long, winding and increasingly mind-numbing battle between Samsung and Apple has taken yet another turn, this time in Australia, and it’s the other way round.According to The Wall Street Journal, Samsung feels that the iPhone and iPad 2 both “violate a number of wireless technology patents held by Samsung.”

Spokesman Nam Ki-yung stated the following: “To defend our intellectual property, Samsung filed a cross claim for Apple’s violation of Samsung’s wireless technology patents.” The suit is being filed just days / weeks before a ruling will decide on whether the Galaxy Tab 10.1 can be legally sold Down Under, and in related news, Samsung is also appealing a recent ruling back in Germany. If ever the world needed an out-of-court settlement… this one will be so huge.

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal

Great news we have here. All these while Apple holds the uniqueness to Thunderbolt, the 10Gbps I/O connector that’s said to be so fast we need spacesuits to use it. But now Apple fans are losing their uniqueness, as Intel’s Thunderbolt I/O port is coming to Windows!

If you’ll recall, Thunderbolt was actually built with Intel’s collaboration (Light Peak, anyone?), and sensibly, the chip giant is now making it possible for the port to appear on non-Mac machines.

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It’s said that Apple’s iPhone is very magical, and there’s an app for everything. It’s so magical you can almost drink water from it. But let’s just admit it, playing Angry Birds and Cut-A-Rope and some Tap Tap Revenge may be abit boring after you’ve played finish em and replayed again for 3 times. Why not bring the fun outside?

Your iPhone isn’t limited to just making calls and some simple apps. You can even control your television with your iPhone. And today, we’re gonna show you one more thing that you can control – an RC helicopter!

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If you’re trying to make a name for yourself in the incredibly crowded portable storage space, you can innovate and create something totally awesome, or you can do this. The mDock from mLogic is an external hard drive, port extender and port blocker all rolled into one pricey coffin-like chamber of fail. $219 will net you an eternal resting place for 500 gigs of data, while $299 ups the ante to an entire terabyte.

Plus, with a pair of front-facing USB ports, you can add a third-party portable storage yokel for the less-than-princely sum of 50 bucks. If you haven’t already gathered, the mDock is designed for mMacbook Pros, but there’s also the iMac-mountable mBack (curiously not the iBack), designed with Apple’s familiar desktop flavor in mind.

Most ports that are blocked by the mDock are replicated on the silver brick, including the Magsafe. The only restriction appears to be a lack of pass-through for Thunderbolt, but you do get a mini DisplayPort for hooking up external monitors.

That variant is slightly more affordable, with pricing ranging from $169 for 1TB to $349 for 3TB, but you’ll forgo the dock-like USB hub and headphone jack. There’s no word on when to expect this to arrive in stores.

SOURCE via mLogic

A German court has weighed in on Apple’s seemingly interminable patent battle against Samsung, and it isn’t looking good for Galaxy Tab users. In a ruling issued yesterday, a Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court upheld last month’s preliminary injunction, banning the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 within Germany.

Citing the slate’s “minimalist, modern form,” presiding judge Johanna Brueckner-Hoffmann determined that Samsung’s tablet bears a “clear impression of similarity” with the iPad 2, thereby meriting a nationwide ban. “The court is of the opinion that Apple’s minimalistic design isn’t the only technical solution to make a tablet computer,” Brueckner-Hoffmann explained, “other designs are possible.”

Earlier this week, as you may recall, Apple won a separate injunction against the Galaxy Tab 7.7 in Düsseldorf, though Samsung can still appeal that decision in a lower court. The court stopped short, however, of calling for an EU-wide injunction against the 10.1-inch slate, arguing that “it could only be competent to order a Europe-wide ban for a firm headquartered outside the European Union if this firm has a German subsidiary.”

Samsung, meanwhile, plans to appeal the ruling in a higher court, with a company spokesman issuing a now all-too familiar statement: “We are disappointed with this ruling and believe it severely limits consumer choice in Germany.”

SOURCE via AFP

Apple has pulled the plug on TV episode rentals via iTunes, abruptly leaving customers with only the option of purchasing per episode — good thing you can watch those on your Apple TV streamed from the cloud — or a Season Pass where available.

AllThingsD has a quote from spokesman Tom Neumayr indicating this was in response to customers that “overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows.” Making the timing of the move particularly curious are once-again renewed rumors of an Apple HDTV and a WSJ profile of new CEO Tim Cook that indicates the company is “working on new technology to deliver video to televisions, and has been discussing whether to try to launch a subscription TV service.”

Like Google, any move depends on its success in negotiating a new delivery model from the networks, who so far have been averse to anything that threatens their existing relationship with pay-TV providers. It appears 99-cent rentals didn’t move the needle, so we’ll wait and see what the folks from Cupertino have up their sleeve next.

[All Things D via Wall Street Journal]

Following the devastation wrought by the recent Japanese earthquake, Apple has hooked the country’s early warning system into iOS 5. The tectonically-volatile nation has the most sophisticated alarm in the world, delivering life-saving warnings seconds or minutes before disaster strikes. iOS users already had access to this functionality via apps like Yurekuru, but iOS 5 will bring it directly into the operating system. The service can be activated in the Notification Center settings pane, accompanied by a warning that the constant connection will deplete your battery faster — a fair exchange if it saves your life.

SOURCE via 9to5mac